Echo
by Sanura Bey
Summary: Mutants. Humans with abilities others only dreamed about. Angela Xavier. A mutant with the ability to copy other mutant abilities at will. In the wrong hands she could be a very powerful weapon. Into who's hands will she fall? Start's with X-Men and goes into Days of Future Past.
1. Pen Pal

Doctor Jean Grey, a strong, attractive woman in her early 30's and my friend, addressed the committee on the behalf of those who couldn't. This was an open hearing; behind the committee members were ordinary Washingtonians. An image of the human genome was closing down behind her as she's concluded a talk about what mutants are and how they came to be.

"We are witnesses a new stage in human evolution. The mutations appear during puberty, and are often triggered during periods of high emotional stress." she said. A microphoned voice interrupted her. I looked to see the flamboyant Senator Robert Kelly, a conservative from Florida, and the hearing's Chairman.

"Thank you Miss Grey, very educational. But it missed the question that is the focus of this hearing. Three words: are mutants dangerous?" he asked her.

"I'm afraid, that's an unfair question, Senator. After all, the wrong person behind the wheel of a car is dangerous." Jean told him.

"Well, we license people to drive." Senator Kelly told her.

"Yes, but not to live." She countered. "Senator, the records clearly show that mutants who have chosen to revealed themselves to the public have been widely regarded with fear and suspicion, even violence." I looked at the people around me as murmurs of dissent moved through the crowd. "It is because of this violence that I urge you all to vote against mutant registration. Forcing mutants to expose themselves will only-"

"Expose themselves?" Senator asked her. "What is it the mutant community has to hide?"

"I didn't say they were hiding-" Jean tried to tell him, but he stopped her.

"Well, let me show you what is being hidden, Miss Grey." He stood up and began to work the crowd, reading from a piece of paper.

"Senat-"

"I have here records of mutants living in the United States. Here's a girl in Illinois who can walk through walls. What's to stop her from walking into a bank vault? Or into the White House? Or into their houses? And I have even heard, Miss Grey, that there are mutants so powerful that they can enter our minds and control our thoughts. Even some who can even gain the powers of other mutants. Either one of these kinds of mutants could take away our God-given free will. I think the American people have a write to decide if they want to send their children to school with mutants. To be taught by mutants. Ladies and gentlemen, the truth is that mutants are very real. And they are among us. We must know who they are, and most importantly, we must know what they can do!" The crowd reacted loudly in support of the Senator. I noticed one man in a hat and trenchcoat get up and leave. I tapped my father's shoulder and pointed him out to him. We followed him as he stormed out and stopped him without a word.

"Erik. What are you doing here?" Dad asked him.

"Why do you ask questions to which you already know the answers?" Erik asked him.

"Don't give up on them, Erik." my father almost begged him.

"What would you have me do, Charles? I've heard these arguments before." Erik told him.

"That was a long time ago. Mankind has evolved since then." Dad told him.

"Yes... Into us." Erik told him.

"We aren't the future, Erik. But we can help build it by things like this." I told him, motioning back to where Jean was.

"Angela, you aren't old enough to remember everything your father and I went saw." he told me.

"I'm older than I look." I told him.

"Oh, I know." he told me. It was silent for a moment before Erik tapped his own forehead. "Are you sneaking around in there, Charles? Whatever are you looking for?"

"I'm looking for hope." Dad told him. Erik turned to us and gave us a warm smile.

"I will give you hope, old friend. And I ask only one thing in return. Don't get in my way." Erik told us before turning on his heel and striding out, leaving my father and I more troubled than ever. "We are the future, Charles, not them. They no longer matter." I waited until he was gone before turning to my father.

"I'm headed up to Canada for a while. I have a friend I wanted to meet up with." I told him and he nodded to me. I left to go home and change before leaving.

* * *

><p>I walked into the bar at Lotham City in my black leather pants,black knee high boots, black turtleneck, and a black leather coat. Lotham City was on the borders of Canadian civilization and the bar showed it. In the back was a cage where men would fight for money and bet on thier favorite fighter. I watched the cage match, waiting for my pen pal (a girl named Marie) to find me. A man was leaning against the bars of the cage. He looked to have taken a pretty bad beating already, but he was smoking something, Perhaps not as injured as he wanted them to think. The crowd was booing him, as the announcer worked them up.<p>

"Ladies and gentlemen, in all my years I have never seen anything like this. Are you going to let this man walk away with your money?" he asked them and many people shouted at that. One tough-looking man rose up and entered the cage. This is clearly not the second man's first fight, and he clearly expected to win. I watched the announcer and the second fighter talk for a moment before separating. The second fighter didn't look impressed. He walked up behind the first fighter's back and hit him. A second and third blow dropped the first fighter, and second kicked him while he's down. The first fighter got up in time to see the second's next punch coming. The first man's knuckles collided with the second and I heard it. A metallic clang. Mutant. the second fighter held his hand close to his body, showing his agony. Te first man followed up with a punch of his own, then a head-butt. More sounds like metal on bone. The second man went down and stayed there making me smile and the crowd boo viciously..

"Ladies and gentlemen, the winner for tonight and still king of the cage... the Wolverine." I smiled at the name before feeling someone tap on my shoulder. I turned to see a girl in a log green coat with a hood that fell to her ankles, a brown scarf that fell to her knees, a brown shirt, patchwork pants, brown shoes and black gloves holding a large brown bag.

"Are you Angela Xavior?" she asked me and I smiled.

"I am. You must be Marie." I said told my hand out for her to shake. She stared at it a moment before shaking my hand.

"I'm going by Rogue now." she told me and I nodded.

"Are you hungry?"

* * *

><p>Rogue and I sat at the bar with her nursing her water while I drank a beer.<p>

"Once the welcoming point to thousands of immigrants, Ellis Island is opening its doors once again, this time for..." I ignored the TV as it went on about the world's largest-ever summit, including nations from over 200 nations.

"Can I get something for my friend here to eat? I asked the bartender, smiling. We'd both noticed Rogue staring at the tip jar.

"Sure." he told us as Wolverine sat at the bar close to us.

"I'll have a beer."

"So, what did you want to meet me here for?" I asked her quietly.

"Something happened a while back at home. I couldn't stay there anymore." she told me and I nodded.

"I understand that. Sometimes our abilities come at a time when we least want them to." I told her.

"I was kissing my boyfriend." he said looking down into her lap.

"The face is, he's still alive Rogue. Not all of us can say that." I told her.

"You owe me some money." I turned to see the second fighter from earlier talking to Wolverine.

"C'mon, Stu, let's not do this." his friend tells him.

"No man takes a beating like that without a mark to show for it." Stu ignored his friend.

"C'mon, buddy, this ain't gonna work." Stu continued to ignore his friend and leaned in to whisper something into Wolverine's ear. I pushed my hair behind my ear and listened.

"I know what you are."

"You lost your money; you keep this up, you'll lose somethin' else." Wolverine warned him.

"C'mon, man." Stu's friend begged him. For a moment, it looked like Stu had let his friend and Wolverine persuade him to let it go. He walked away before turning and walking back with a switchblade in hand.

"Look out!" Rogue called out to him. I used an ability I'd copied from another mutant to quickly run to Stu and take the switch blade from his hand and used my mind to destroy it. Wolverine slammed Stu up against the wall and two metal claws emerged from his knuckles on either side of Stu's neck. A third began to extend between the first two, and stopped just short of slashing Stu's Adam's apple making the human keep very still. I turned as I heard a shotgun being cocked. I turned and saw a gun pressed against Wolverine's temple.

"Get out of my bar, freaks!" the bartender ordered. Wolverine looked at him for an instant, then, in one quick motion, extended three claws from his other hand and used them to cut through the metal of the gun like a hot knife through butter. I had the metal float over to me and crumble into dust. Wolverine looked from Stu to the bartender for a moment, growling, before glancing at me.

_**Don't. Let them go and we can all leave here in one** **piece**._ I used my telepathy to tell him. Wolverine retracted his claws and quietly walked out.

"Rogue, let's go." I told her and we followed the man out.


	2. Getting a Ride

Rogue and I left the bar and I watched as the man checked the tarp on his trailer before getting in his truck.

"What are we doing?" she asked me and I smiled at her.

"Getting a lift." I said as I opened the tarp large enough for her to crawl under as well as myself. I felt the truck move and smiled at her.

"Why are we doing this?" she asked me.

"Did you want to stay at the bar?" I asked her.

"No." she started telling me."

"Besides, I didn't feel like driving and he'll stop when he figures we're here." I told her relaxing slightly. We talked about our lives, mostly hers, as the man drove until we stopped moving. I heard the truck door open and close and suddenly Rogue was poked and tried not to move. The tarp was suddenly ripped off us and we looked up to see the man staring down at us.

"What the hell are you doin'?" he asked us.

"I'm sorry. We needed a ride. We thought you might help us." She told him. He stared at us for a moment.

"Get out of there." He ordered us and we shuffled out of his trailer and he threw her back onto the ground.

"Where're we s'posed to go?" she asked as he turned and walked away from us.

"I don't know." He told her.

"You don't know, or you don't care?" I asked clarifying his answer.

"Pick one." He told me getting back into the truck and slamming the door shut.

"Are you really going to leave two girls to fend for themselves in the middle of nowhere?" I asked him and he didn't answer.

"We saved your life." She called after him.

"No, you didn't." he said before he started to drive away.

"Don't worry he'll stop and give us a lift." I told her.

"How do you know?" she asked me.

"I know a good man when I see one." I told her smiling right before he stopped his truck only twenty feet away from us. Rogue picked up her bag and we ran toward the truck. I made her sit in the passenger seat while I sat in the back area.

"You don't have anything to eat, do you?" She asked him, reminding me that because of the bar fight she didn't get a chance to eat anything. The man pulled out a small bag for her out of the glove compartment and she started to eat them. "I'm Rogue and this is my friend Echo." She said but he still didn't say anything. She gets a closer look at Logan. A single, silver dog tag hangs from his neck from a battered chain. "Where you in the army? Doesn't that mean you were in the army?" she asked him and I watched him put the dog tags he was wearing into his shirt. Rogue looked at the back of the truck where I was sitting. It was extremely spare sleeping quarters and not much else other than the clothes laying all over the place. "Wow."

"What?" he asked her.

"Suddenly my life doesn't look that bad." She told him and I shook my head at her.

"Hey, if you prefer the road—" he warned.

"No, no." she said quickly.

"She didn't mean that it was worse than her life, just warmer." I told him.

"She's right. It looks great. It looks cozy." Rogue said as she rubbed her hands together to keep warm. He turned on the heater and tried to take her hand.

"Put your hands over the heater." He told her. I held my breath as she almost made contact with her skin but she quickly pulled away from him. "Look, I'm not gonna hurt you."

"It's nothing personal. It's just... when people touch my skin... something happens." She told him.

"What?" he asked her.

"I don't know. They just get hurt." She told him and I put my hand on her shoulder as a comforting gesture.

"Fair enough." He told her.

"Don't worry Rogue. We'll figure it out." I told her, offering her a warm smile. She smiled back at me for a moment before staring at the man.

"When they come out... does it hurt?" she asked and I looked to his hands as he drove.

"Every time." He told her. "What kind of a name is Echo and Rogue?" he asked after a moment.

"I don't know. What kind of a name is Wolverine?" she asked him and I laughed lightly.

"My name is really Angela." I told him.

"My name's Logan." He said.

"Marie." She said.

"I know I don't have a choice in the matter but you should wear a seatbelt." I told him.

"Look, I don't need any advice—" We suddenly crashed into something and he was thrown through the windshield. Rogue slammed into her seatbelt and I was thrown forward slightly only to be pushed back into the sleeping area. I groaned as I sat up and moved back next to Rogue who was struggling against her seatbelt.

"What's wrong?" I asked her.

"I'm stuck." I tried helping her get out of her seatbelt before looking over to Logan and watched as he healed before our eyes.

"Are you two all right?" he called to us.

"She's stuck!" I called to him. He moved to her door and opened it to help me get her out, but he stopped and sniffed the air. "What is it?" I asked him as he extended one hand's claws and stared into the wilderness around us. I watched the wilderness and screamed slightly as Sabretooth tackled Logan. I tried pulling the seatbelt even harder to break it. I could use one of the many powers I'd copied but I didn't want to hurt or frighten her. Logan's body suddenly crashed down on top of the truck making both Rogue and I scream. I watched his claws retract confirming he was unconscious. I felt heat on my back and turned to see a fire continuing to grow. I used one hand to control the fire and the other to finally destroy the metal on the belt. "Get out. Now!" I told her. She quickly got out of the truck with me behind her when I noticed the wind and snow beginning to pick up.

"What's going on?" she asked me.

"Don't worry." I told her. "We're going to be safe." I pulled her with me towards Logan as Sabretooth was being pushed back. A brilliant red laser beam blasted forth towards Sabretooth, but he leapt away from it and escaped.

"Echo! Are you alright?" Storm asked me when she got closer.

"I'm fine. Cyclops we're taking him back with us. Rogue, we need to leave." I said and we all quickly left before the truck exploded behind us.


	3. Welcome To Mutant High

It had been a few days since Cyclops and Storm had saved us from Sabretooth and Logan hadn't woken up yet. Rouge, as she now wished to be called, had been settled in as a student amongst all the others. Medical monitors beeped around Logan, keeping track of his vital signs as led in a bed in the middle of a medical lab. I walked to him as Jean stood over him, her hand moving across his body.

"Hey Jean." I said with a smile to her.

"Hey Angie." She said to me with a smile of her own.

"If you and Scott have plans, I can take over." I told her. She blushed lightly before nodding and I smiled at her retreating form. I looked down at his rippling muscles before shaking my head to clear it. I grabbed a chemical next to me and then the IV. I uncapped the needle and moved to the middle Logan's arms and started to insert it. Just as I was sticking the needle in his arm he jolted violently. Whipping around behind me, he wrapped his arm around my neck.

"Angela?" he asked me, his voice slightly raspy due to him not being able to use it.

"Yes, Logan. It's me, you're safe here." I told him. He grabbed my arm and led me out the door into the hallway, tearing the medical monitors off his skin. He looked around, unsure which way to run being surrounded by X-logo double doors.

_**Dad, Logan's awake.**_

_**Bring him to me.**_

_**Where is he? **_I said disguising my voice in Logan's mind. He jolted again since he had no idea where the voice was coming from. He looked around more and I saw him looking at the uniforms like the ones Scott and Storm wore when they rescued us. He let go and started to rummage through the lockers, coming up with a shirt and pants that almost fit him.

_**Where are you going? **_Once again, Logan didn't know where the voice had come from. An elevator opens next to us.

_**Over here! **_Logan pulled me into the elevator and the doors closed on us.

"Are you okay?" I asked him calmly.

"Where are we?" he asked me.

"My place." I told him.

"You're in my head." He said and I nodded.

"My dad wants to meet you." I told him. He stared at me as though he didn't quite know if he could trust me before nodding. I smiled at him and stepped out of the elevator into a tastefully decorated hallway. Suddenly a crowd of students came our way running down the hallway. "Hey, be careful." I told them as they past us. Logan followed me to my dad's office where he was surrounded by five student and had a blackboard behind him.

"Good morning, Logan." My dad said to him with a smile. "Now I want your definition of weak and strong anthropic principles on Wednesday. That'll be all." The students filed out, but Kitty turned and grabbed her purse from where she was sitting.

"Goodbye, Professor." Kitty said blushing.

"Goodbye, Kitty." He said smiling. Kitty ran out of the room through the door. Logan had watched her leave as I made my way next to my dad before he looked back at us. "Physics. Can I offer you some breakfast?"

"Where am I?" Logan asked him.

"Westchester, New York." My dad said coming out from behind his desk. "I'm Professor Charles Xavier, you've met my daughter, Angela. After you were attacked, my people brought you here for medical attention."

"I don't need medical attention." Logan told him.

"Yes, of course." Dad said.

"Where's the other girl?" Logan asked.

"Rogue's fine." I told him.

"Really?" he asked me and I nodded to him. The door opened behind him and Storm and Cyclops came into the room.

"May I present Ororo Monroe, also called Storm..." my dad introduced.

"Hello." She greeted with a smile.

"And Scott Summers, also called Cyclops." Scott offered his hand and Logan just stared at it. "They saved your life. You're at my mansion, a school for mutants. You'll be safe here from Magneto."

"What's a Magneto?" he asked.

"A very powerful mutant who believes a war is brewing between mutants and the rest of humanity. I've been following his activities for some time. The man who attacked you is an associate of his named Sabretooth." Dad said.

""Sabretooth?"" he sneered before looking at Storm and pointing to her. ""Storm." What do they call you two? "Wheels" and "Mind?""

"I'm Echo and my dad's the Professor." I told him.

"This is the stupidest thing I've ever heard." He said before he began to leave. Cyclops stood in the doorway, not moving. ""Cyclops," right?" he asked before grabbing him. "You want to get out of my way?" Scott looked over Logan's should, back at us.

"Logan. It's been almost fifteen years, hasn't it?" Dad asked him and I saw the words chill him to the bone as he looked back at us. "Moving from place to place, with no idea who you really are?"

"Shut up!" he demanded.

"Give me a chance. I may be able to help you find what you're looking for." Dad offered him.

"How do you know-?" Logan asked him before looking all around him then back to us. "What is this place?"

"Let me show you around." I said before walking to the door with him behind me.

"Anonymity is a mutant's first defense against the world's hostility." I told him as we walked through the halls, showing him the classes and other things as we walked. "To the outside world, we're only a school for the gifted. Cyclops, Jean, and Storm were some of my first classmates. My dad protected them, trained them to use their powers, and eventually, to train others to do the same. I walked him into a room for him to see Storm now teaching a class that included Rogue. "Our students are mostly runaways, some of them with gifts are so extreme that they've become a danger to themselves and to others, like Rogue, incapable of human contact, probably for the rest of her life. And yet here she is, with others her own age, being accepted, not feared."

"What'll happen to her?" he asked me.

"That'll be up to her. Either she'll rejoin the world an educated woman, or stay to become one of what my students have affectionately called the "X-Men."" I told him with a smile. "But this is just the public face of the school. The lower levels are another matter entirely, as you saw." I said before leading him into the hanger where the Blackbird resided. "When my father was a boy, he learned that he could control the minds of others, make them do or think whatever he wanted. When he was 16, he met another young man, Erik Lansherr, who also had an amazing power. He could create magnetic fields and control metal. Convinced that humans would never accept us, he grew angry and vengeful. He became Magneto." We made our way back to my father's office, him asking questions and me answering them the best I could.

* * *

><p>"Many powerful mutants are out there, Logan, and many of them do not share our respect for mankind. Without anyone to protect them, humanity's days might be numbered." My dad told him once we made it back. "I'll make a deal with you, Logan. Give me 48 hours to find what Magneto wants with you, and I swear I'll do all I can to help you piece together what you've lost... and what you're looking for."<p> 


End file.
